


Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

by allumir



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Christmas, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, stevetonysecretsanta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 13:44:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13147935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allumir/pseuds/allumir
Summary: Tony gets de-aged by a villian and it's up to Steve to take care of him but Tony seems afraid of him for some reason.For avengersasssemble on Tumblr for stevetonysecretsanta! Merry Christmas and Enjoy!





	Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

The frosty air of New York on Christmas Eve nipped at Steve’s nose peeking out from under his cowl as he attempted to herd the huge reindeer into a manageable group. Natasha was helping him out with the biggest group while the rest of the Avengers were hunting down stray ones who had ran off in the commotion. Clint’s voice came over the com, “Did you guys know that reindeer are all female? The guys lose their antlers.”

Steve saw the smirk on Natasha’s face before anything left her mouth, “Wow, Clint, even female animals run away from you.”

Everyone laughed, even Steve who couldn’t help himself, while Clint whined out a protest. Steve made sure to keep everyone on their task at hand though, “How many are left out there, avengers?”

Tony answered, “Only one left, Cap. It looks like Clint’s on it.”

Steve, completely done with this mundane mission, given that it was a holiday and wanting to go home and cuddle on the couch with Tony in front of the fireplace, uncharacteristically dropped the professionalism and responded, “Well then get your cute iron butt over here, so we can wrap this up and go home, Iron Man.”

A shocked gasp came through and Steve could almost imagine Tony’s hand coming up to his chest in feigned horror, “My, my Captain how very forward of you.” Steve rolled his eyes and didn’t bother to hide the fond smile on his face.

“We are coming, Captain,” Thor’s booming voice declared. Natasha calmed down the last spooked reindeer while the rest calmly scuffed at the ground and snorted, putting white clouds into the air. Thor and Iron Man landed down, softly as not to arouse another reindeer catching game. Steve went up to Tony and put his arm around the armor’s waist and the helmet was lowered. Tony put his arm around the Captain’s shoulders and started to greet him, “Hiya, Ca-” He wasn't able to finish the last part of his sentence, however, interrupting himself with giggles as Steve buried his cold red nose in Tony’s neck and nuzzeld there. Thor and Natasha shared long suffering sighs but couldn’t help viewing the sappy scene with happiness.

Clint came speeding up on the back of a reindeer hooting and hollering. He came upon the rest of the reindeer and the Avengers and hopped off. His cheeks were flushed with adrenaline and had a goofy grin on his face. Natasha smacked the back of his head. He yelped, “OW! Nat! What was that for?”

“You idiot! You could have scared off all of the reindeer we rounded up!” They began their usual bickering and Bruce came out of the van where he was waiting. The Hulk would’ve been too rough with the reindeer and Bruce wasn’t fast enough to chase after them so he watched from a inconspicuous  SHIELD van. He joined the group laughing at Natasha and Clint’s antics.

All laughter stopped when the crazy maniac who made the reindeer huge and let them loose to terrorize New York made an appearance. Everybody got in fighting positions and pulled out their weapons. Iron Man’s helmet slammed down and him and Steve separated. The man laughed loudly and yelled out, “You idiots! You think that the giant reindeer was my actual plan?”

Tony responded snidely, “Yes, actually. You’re certainly not smart enough to come up with something better.” The man become more agitated and pulled a gun out from behind him. He aimed it at Tony. Steve became alarmed and began to reach out to put Tony behind him but the man pulled the trigger before he could. Instead of a normal bullet, a blinding white light shot out of the barrel and blinding everyone around. Steve put his arm in front of his eyes, trying to block out the light. The light faded and the man ran off, Thor and Natasha right on his heels to capture the criminal and find out what he shot at Tony. Steve dropped his shield with a clang and slid on the ice in his hurry to get to Tony. The armor was on the floor looking like it wasn’t affected but that did not say anything of the man inside and panic was still clawing its way up Steve’s throat. Steve kneeled down by the armor and ordered Jarvis to open up the suit. Jarvis hesitated but did as asked. Steve felt his heart go cold when he didn’t see Tony in the armor but a whimper caught his attention and he looked further down and a little boy was laying in the middle of the armor.

Normal people might have been confused and not able to understand what was going on but in Steve’s line of work things like this happened more frequently than you might think. So looking at the child with features extremely similar to Tony’s, Steve realised that whatever had been shot from that gun had deaged Tony into what looked to be a toddler. Tony’s clothes were way too big and the only thing still on the toddler was Tony’s long sleeved shirt, covering the toddler’s hands and down to below his knees. He sighed and attempted to talk to the little version of Tony. “Hey, buddy. It’s ok, I promise. I’m going to pick you up now, ok?” The little boy looked at Steve with huge tearfilled eyes but made no move to show he heard Steve. Steve slowly reached out to the boy to get him out of the suit.

Tony suddenly screamed and let out wails once Steve’s hands touched him. Steve immediately retracted like he touched fire and his face showed the complete shock he was feeling. Tony continued to squirm in the armor and sob, hiding his face behind the very long sleeves of the shirt on him.

Bruce watched as it happened and hurried over to Tony, reaching into the armor to attempt to try and calm him down. He spoke in low comforting tones and touched him as light as possible. Clint came over to where Steve was sitting paralyzed on the ground. He put his hand on the captain’s shoulder and said, “Hey, Steve it’s not about you, he’s just in an unfamiliar situation with people he doesn't know. The poor boy’s probably scared out of his wits.”

Steve nodded and slowly stood up, “You’re right, it’s just, I figured he would recognize the Captain America costume.”

Clint grinned, “Well it has changed a lot from the one his Cap Bear he cuddled with was based on.” 

Steve’s lips turned up and he huffed, “Right.”

Bruce had sufficiently calme the boy down and held him in his arms, trying to protect him from the cold as best he could. Thor came down the road holding the criminal under his arm with Natasha in tow. They noticed Tony’s situation and Natasha looked at Steve, confused as to why Tony wasn’t in his arms. Steve didn’t have an answer to the question and so he instead said, “Avengers let’s go home and figure out this situation.”

The whole ride back to the Avengers tower in one of the SHIELD van’s Tony kept in Bruce’s lap but went from hiding his little face in Bruce’s chest to looking at Thor and asking who he was. Thor proclaimed he was a God and Tony was suddenly entranced with him and Thor managed to coax a few giggles from the little boy’s lips with outlandish tales. And Steve was in no way jealous. It would be ridiculous to be jealous anyways, Tony didn’t even remember who he was.

When they got home Steve asked Jarvis to buy some toddler necessities, including clothes, toys, blankets, sippy cups, and even a few pacifiers, not exactly knowing how old Tony was and what he would need. Bruce was still carrying Tony but asked Steve to take him, seeing as all the other Avengers had gone to change into civilian clothes and warm up, so he could go down to the lab and figure out how to reverse what had been done to Tony. Steve was understandably worried but as he took Tony and Bruce went down to the lab, all the little boy did was squirm to get down and quickly scitter to behind the couch.

Steve slowly walked to the couch and once there, set down the shield so it was leaning against the couch and pulled down his coul, revealing his full face. He kneeled down and looked around the arm of the couch to see Tony. When Tony saw that Steve was looking at him he squeaked and hid his face in the couch. Steve couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle from the adorable action. He remembered the heartbreaking crying of before and his humor sobered. “Tony, can I ask you something?”

Tony peeked an eye out and Steve took that as answer enough. He breathed out and steeled himself for the possible answer to his question, “Honey-Tony...are you scared of me?”

Tony pulled his face from the side of the couch and turned so his body faced Steve. He tried to look Steve in the eyes but ultimately looked at his feet while keeping his arms completely at his side. He whispered, “Father said that...said you wouldn’t like me. That you would be...disappointed in me.” His eyes glazed over and a tear slipped out, crawling down his cheek and catching the light as it went. Steve’s body went hot with anger and his face became stormy. How dare Howard make his son feel less than, how dare he tell him such blatant  _ lies _ ?

He tried to push back his emotions for Tony and cleared the anger on his face. “Honey, can you look at me?” Tony slowly lifts his head, his round teary eyes looking up at Steve. “He’s wrong. I’m so incredibly proud of you, sweetheart. You’re the bravest boy I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

Tony looked incredulously up at him for a moment before throwing himself into Steve’s arms and wrapping himself around him. Steve grunted lightly in surprise before wrapping himself around Tony as well. He stood up and walked to the bathroom to give the poor mucky boy a bath.

In the middle of a bath with an extreme amount of bubbles and one giggling bright boy a sneeze interrupted the fun. Steve looked up from where he was scrubbing Tony’s feet in surprise. The boy sneezed again, blowing bubbles all about. Tony's eyes were wide, creating a cute picture combined with the bubbles covering him and floating around him. Steve laughed and told Tony, “I guess the cold outside got to ya, huh? Well let’s finish up and get you in some nice warm clothes, right Jarvis?”

Jarvis responded, “Absolutely, Captain Rogers. The package full of necessities for the young Sir has arrived.”

Steve finished up cleaning Tony from the grime of the battle and rubbed him down then wrapped him up in the softest, fluffiest towel he could find. He opened the box that Jarvis had brought up full of everything they’d need and pulled out a soft onesie to put Tony in. It was designed to look like a black cat and covered him completely with a tail on his bottom and a hood that came up to cover his fluffy hair with pointed ears attached. Tony looked up at him from under the big hood and Steve released a series of coo’s and picked him up to kiss wherever he could reach. Tony squealed and luaghed loudly squirming in Steve’s hold.

Tony coughed loudly from his laughing and Steve immediately stopped concerned for the precious package in his arms. He went to the kitchen to find some medicine and found some cough syrup and advil for the poor sick boy. Tony was not at all happy about having to take the icky medicine but did it when Steve promised they could play with all the toys in the box for however Tony wanted if he did. Steve would have played with Tony anyways but it did incentivize the boy to take the medicine so he could feel better which Steve was feeling really guilty about how sick Tony was. Steve and Tony played with all the toys included in the box including Avengers action figures and lego sets.

They played for a few hours, stopping once to have a dinner consisting of boxed mac and cheese that Steve whipped up together really fast. Eventually Tony got tired and was yawning while rubbing at his tired eyes. Tony vehemently refused to go to bed however when Steve asked so they instead watched  _ The Polar Express _ on the couch. Tony layed down on the couch with his head on Steves lap and a blanket tucked up to his chin while Steve ran his hand through his soft hair.

By the time the movie was over, Tony was out like a light soft breaths coming through his open mouth and a few mumbles here and there. Steve looked down at the boy who was bathed in the lights from the christmas tree, letting him be seen in the darkness. Steve smiled to himself and leaned down to kiss him on the forehead before leaning his own head back and falling asleep.

In the morning on Christmas day, the Avengers walked into the living room to find their two leaders, both fully adults, cuddling on the couch.


End file.
